Tape-outs for SoCs aid early adopters of Arm mobile processor IP

Synopsys announced that Synopsys and Arm have collaborated to enable tapeouts of optimized system-on-chips (SoCs) for early adopters of Arm’s latest mobile processor IP, including Arm Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 CPUs, and Mali-G78 GPU. A range of Synopsys solutions, including the Synopsys Fusion Design Platform, Verification Continuum Platform, and DesignWare Interface IP, were used in the design of smartphones, laptops, other mobile devices, 5G, augmented reality, and machine learning products based on Arm’s new processors. To help designers accelerate time-to-market (TTM) and achieve optimal power, performance, and area (PPA) targets, Synopsys QuickStart Implementation Kits (QIKs) are available today.

Leveraging the collaboration that enabled successful early adopter tapeouts, the QIKs provide implementation scripts and reference guides and take advantage of Synopsys Fusion Compiler technology to deliver enhanced PPA and faster turnaround. To help designers achieve their targets quickly and confidently, Synopsys offers design services based on extensive experience hardening Arm processors. The services available range from QuickStart implementation through turnkey core hardening.

The Synopsys Fusion Design Platform has been leveraged for optimized implementation of the new mobile cores and incorporates many Synopsys industry-leading products, including:

• Fusion Compiler design, Design Compiler NXT synthesis, and IC Compiler II place-and-route system for efficient, low-power design implementation
• Signoff closure with PrimeTime PBA-based ECO with power recovery and exhaustive PBA along with StarRC simultaneous multi-corner extraction
• Early, accelerated design optimization for power integrity and reliability with the RedHawk Analysis Fusion signoff-driven flow within Fusion Compiler and IC Compiler II place and route

Early adopters of Arm’s new premium mobile platform are using Synopsys Verification Continuum solutions extensively with:

• Earlier, faster, scalable software development and test from anywhere at any time with Synopsys Virtualizer Development Kit (VDK) with Arm Fast Models for Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 CPUs
• Synopsys VCS® simulation with fine-grained parallelism technology for Arm Cortex-A processors
• Synopsys industry-leading verification IP and test suites for the latest Arm AMBA® interconnect
• Synopsys ZeBu Server for system verification and benchmarking
• Synopsys HAPS hardware for high performance, scalable FPGA-based prototyping proven with latest Arm cores

Synopsys’ high-quality DesignWare Interface IP enables rapid development of mobile Arm-based SoCs. DesignWare IP for mobile markets includes controllers and PHYs for USB, DDR/LPDDR, PCI Express, MIPI, HDMI, Bluetooth and mobile storage interfaces, and is shipping in billions of units today.

QIKs for key Arm processors are available today at https://www.synopsys.com/arm-opto. More information about Synopsys’ solutions for designing Arm-based products is available at: https://synopsys.com/Arm.